A roadmap for a website is a written down strategic outline in order to develop and improve a website. By making a roadmap, firms are able to exhibit their progress to web users and show them the plans for the near future and the features visitors can expect from their website. This allows organizations to be more transparent and helps them in being accountable to their clients. Below are the steps that should be taken to make an effective website roadmap.
Items to Include
A roadmap for a website is usually published on the company’s website. Some of the essential items a website roadmap must contain are:
- A concise introduction that explains the goals and purpose of the website.
- A brief text that explains the current position of the website as well as the outcomes users can expect.
- A timeline signifying various action items.
- A forum where users can submit their ideas and give their feedback.
Research
Before initiating work on the roadmap, it is necessary to determine the requirements of the website. Ensure that the goals of the website and the target audience are properly defined. Observe the latest traffic trends and determine which of the website pages get the most hits and which pages are not visited at all. Conduct focus groups with a bunch of your loyal users to figure out the features that customers would like you to add or enhance on the website. Observe your competitors to see what features they are offering and whether those features are well-liked by their customers or not.
Prioritize
When you have the results of the research in your hand, prioritize the improvements and additions on the basis of importance and customer satisfaction. Then develop a timeline for these upgrades ensuring that the most important upgrades are implemented first. The overall cost of the enhancements may have an impact on the prioritization decisions as well.
Execute
When you have mapped the entire plan and developed a comprehensive timeline for your website, you should now engage your customers and stay in constant touch with them. Keep posting progress notes on the website roadmap to let your customers know the new features they can expect on the website. Implement each new feature on the website individually with regular gaps between implementation. This will keep customers hooked on to your website and make them wait in anticipation for the next upgrade. This is a better option than to completely revamp the website as learning an entirely new system of navigation is difficult and customers will not give their time and attention to it.
Evaluate
Monitoring or evaluating the results is always the last and most important step for every implementation. Conduct a comprehensive research to ensure that the upgrades are exactly what the users required and that these upgrades are in alignment with the basic goal of the website. See if all the new features are easy to use and are working properly. You can then adjust the roadmap accordingly.
